«Высшая мера» и другие рассказы на английском языке

I just saw it with my own eyes and I want to tell you about it.

It all happened in Siberia in the middle of the 80-ies. I was visiting my namesake and friend Alexander who was a journalist. I stayed at his place in a big Siberian city. He had a very funny dog called Piggy. My friend said that he gave that name to his fox-terrier because she had looked like a little pig when he had bought her. So every day Alexander took Piggy for a walk two or three times. Piggy was so friendly that she took an instant liking to me and very often woke me up in the morning hinting that I should take her for a walk.

Well, I like animals in general and dogs in particular so I was never against taking Piggy out.

My visit was almost coming to an end, when Piggy decided it was my turn to take her for an evening stroll. Sometimes, I think that it is dogs that take their owners for a walk rather than otherwise. It was spring-time (I’m sure some of you imagined blooming trees and flowers. Well, I’m afraid you forget where I was.

). It was March in Siberia. The snow still covered the city. The temperature was about minus 10-15 Celsius. In a word, it was a usual Siberian spring.

Anyway, Piggy took me out and we headed for her favorite place in the nearby park. Piggy liked her walks to bephysical, what I mean is that she always carried a small tennis ball in her mouth. Whoever took Piggy for a walk was supposed to throw the ball as far as he could and Piggy would run for it, bring it back and put it right in front of your feet.

She hinted that you could either pick it up and throw it again or just kick it. This kind of activity could go on and on until both parties felt quite exhausted and were looking forward to coming back home.

That evening Piggy was especially in a sporting mood and made me throw the ball a million times. I think it was quite good for me too as the weather was cold. We’d been walking for an hour or so when I noticed a strange looking cloud. It was hanging at a distance of no more than 150 yards (about 130 meters).

And it drew my attention because it looked like a huge ball, an absolutely perfect round ball. The size of that ball was about 10-15 yards (about 12 meters) in diameter.

As the poet said I stood in my shoes and I wondered[1 -

Строчка из стихотворения Джона Китса «The Naughty Boy»]

I couldn’t quite make out what it was. Actually, that “cloud” was hanging too low, perhaps ten yards (nine meters) above the ground level.